THE WELCOME confirmation yesterday by military sources that Egypt’s parliamentary election may not now be held until November represents an important concession to the country’s emerging democratic forces and to enhancing wide participation in the contest. They have been warning that earlier elections would be a gift to parties associated with the old Mubarak regime and to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, already well-established and organised. Of particular concern to secularists is the fear that the brotherhood will dominate a convention to draft a new constitution that the parliament will elect.
The announcement from sources close to the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces, the country’s interim rulers, comes only a day after a veiled threat of a crackdown in a warning against what it termed the disruption of public life or the “hijacking” of their authority. Egyptians, urged to disavow continuing protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and other cities, are exasperated over what they see as the stalled revolution, continuing military rule, and a slowness to prosecute police and members of the old regime responsible for the deaths of 840 demonstrators during the January/February uprising.
But the demonstrations are clearly touching raw nerves and having an effect. They triggered the forced resignation on Tuesday of deputy premier Yehya Gemal, a loathed acolyte of Mubarak, and both a promise of a broader cabinet shake-up and an increase in the minimum wage.
Yesterday the interior ministry also announced that 650 police officers, including 505 generals, are being stood down from the service. And, last week 25 officials from Mubarak’s government, including 18 of the generals fired yesterday, were at last charged with manslaughter, attempted murder and assault in connection with an attack in February in which crowds in Tahrir Square were charged by men on horses and camels. The accused also include the speakers of both houses of parliament, MPs from Mubarak’s National Democratic Party, and former cabinet ministers. The trials will be relayed from court on TV screens to the streets outside.
The impatience for immediate results, and suspicion of military intentions, of the young demonstrators is inevitable. There are also huge expectations that the new dispensation can and will lift the country out of its grinding poverty, expectations the transitional government will find difficult to manage. It is riding a tiger. Revolution can be an acquired taste.